13th December 2023
Cut food waste
I was once told never to waste so much as a grain of rice because somewhere a farmer had worked hard to produce it.
“More than 900 million tonnes of food is thrown away every year, according to the UN Environment Programme‘s Food Waste Index… 17% of the food available to consumers – in shops, households and restaurants – goes directly into the bin. Some 60% of that waste is in the home.”(1)
“About a third of all the world’s food goes to waste, and producing, transporting and letting that food rot releases 8-10% of global greenhouse gases. If food waste were a country, it would have the third-biggest carbon footprint after the US and China, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.”(2)
“In February 2016, France adopted a pioneering law on fighting food waste that meant supermarkets were forbidden to destroy unsold food products and were compelled to donate it instead. This law constituted the starting point of the fight against food waste through banning its destruction and facilitating donation. Since the adoption, its scope has been extended further…”(3)
OddBox and similar fruit and vegetable box schemes, sell fruit and vegetables that would otherwise go to waste. The produce may come direct from the farm where there is a sudden glut or sudden drop in demand, or from wholesalers when the boxes re-home produce that is too small, too big, too wonky etc.
Other companies such as Olio and Too Good to Go, have schemes for re-homing various foods that would otherwise go to waste – such as breads and cakes unsold at the end of the day.
See for more details – https://www.oddbox.co.uk/blog/7-apps-that-are-helping-reduce-food-waste
And also – https://wrap.org.uk/taking-action/food-drink/actions/action-on-food-waste
Food waste is not just a western problem. It is also a problem in, for example, Africa. The World Economic Forum reports “Across Africa, an estimated 100 million people faced catastrophic levels of food insecurity in 2020; …. This is due to conflicts, successive crop failures (as a result of climate change and extreme weather events), pre-existing and COVID-19 related economic shocks, and soaring food prices. Yet, at the same time, significant volumes of food are lost after harvest in sub-Saharan Africa each year — estimated at $4 billion worth for grains alone. This exceeds the value of the total food aid received in sub-Saharan Africa over the past decade, and equates to the annual value of cereal imports. In a continent where so many people are starving, and many more, particularly children and women, are undernourished, it is unconscionable to lose and waste food at this scale. Reducing food loss and waste could be one of the leading strategies for Africa ….
“[One] major challenge across Africa is a lack of effective transport and storage facilities due to poor access to energy to power cold storage, poor infrastructure such as roads and railway networks, access and affordability, among others. If these were improved, they could help prevent post-harvest losses.” (4)
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56271385
- https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/sep/04/how-food-waste-is-huge-contributor-to-climate-change
- https://zerowasteeurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/zwe_11_2020_factsheet_france_en.pdf
(4) https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/01/food-loss-waste-africa-agriculture-farming/
The Green Tau 